The Waterboy

So his peers honored the “Savior” of the Republican/Tea Party by allowing him to respond to the President’s State of the Union Address.

I am very glad the Republican Party chose Marco Rubio to deliver the response; that decision allowed the world to see that this man is far from ready to be in the spotlight and definitively he is not Presidential material.

I found it particularly funny that he decided to include at the beginning of his response that “For much of human history, most people were trapped in stagnant societies, where a tiny minority always stayed on top, and no one else even had a chance.” I find this funny because that is precisely what has happened during the last 12 years and what the Party he represents defends to no end: The privileged 1% of America.



Once more we had to listen to Rubio mentioning the humble beginnings of his family, how his dad was a bartender and his mother a cashier and a maid… I was expecting the sorrowful sounds of a violin in the background, but that never came. First of all, bartenders make very good money – even more in Las Vegas and we all know that there is nothing like a drunk to leave a good tip. Second, his family came here not as refugees as he has tried to make all of us believe, but as immigrants that were fleeing their country just the same as so many of those undocumented immigrants he has tried so hard and for so long to deny them the right to stay in this country. His mother, father and grandfather came here illegally. They worked, also illegally, until 1962 when Johnson allowed Cubans to stay permanently in this country; that’s when his family decided to step forward and adhere to the new law. It seems that his parents weren’t too sure about if they wanted to stay in this country or not, because it took them 15 years to become American citizens. Also, even though Rubio claims that they (his parents) were never to return to Cuba and that made them Refugees, it is not entirely true since his parents went back and forth to the island up to 1962. His parents came here for prosperity, to provide themselves and their children a better life but they did not come here fleeing from communism or fearing prosecution. I’ve read in many conservative sites that back in 1956 Cuban people knew already what was to happen to the island and were leaving - that is not true, even those that came in 1959 were hopeful that the Castro regime was not going to last. Many of the Cubans that left before 1959 came to the United States because they were against Batista or Machado, and most of them were Castro’s sympathizers and perhaps that is what happened with Rubio’s parents and there is nothing wrong with that, many Cubans that are now in exile were at one time Castro’s sympathizers, but don’t try to compare their status with those that came after them; those that came after 1959 couldn’t bring a single dime with them, those that came before 1959 could bring everything they owned with them and that makes a huge financial difference. But I am going off subject here.

Rubio continued lecturing America as to what constitutes a “vibrant” economy – as if he has a vast knowledge in this field. According to him a “vibrant free economy” is where people can risk their own money to open a business (no bank loans) and these people will hire other people who in turn will help others start a business and create jobs.  Sorry, but most of these very, very small businesses do not hire people, most are family businesses where every employee is a family member and if not, the employee is at minimum wage with no benefits whatsoever. It seems that the many “business failures” his own father encountered over the years didn’t serve to teach Marco that wishing, good disposition and an entrepreneur mind is at times not enough to make it. Take Marco for instance; if it wasn’t for the student loans he had access to, he would probably be working at a restaurant on Miami Beach. Instead and thanks to the government, who are the ones guaranteeing student loans he became a lawyer and today we have to put up with him.

Rubio continued talking about economy as if he is an erudite on the subject, and while at it lying about what the President has said about the cause of the economic downfall; Rubio claims that the President believes that the cause of America’s problem is that the previous government was too little… when did President Obama ever said such a thing? And then Rubio defined what in his illustrious opinion caused the financial crisis: housing and reckless policies. While the housing crisis didn’t help the economy, and the policies were reckless because Republicans have always believed that companies can regulate themselves and the companies didn’t. If you don't believe me, all you have to do is watch how Republicans oppose strong regulations on Wall Street or the oil industry.

According to Rubio, “more taxes and more government spending” is an old idea that has failed every time it has been tried. Is he for real? Did it failed during the glorious economic era America enjoyed when Bill Clinton was President? Every time the taxes on the very wealthy have been raised in our recent history, the result has been an economic growth, and every time there has been tax cuts (something Republicans love and regardless of results they want to preserve) the economy has shrunk. All serious and renowned economists agree with this, except the “laureate economist” in the Republican Party.

It has been government that has propelled science discoveries by providing funds for these studies, and according to Rubio, government had nothing to do with it. It is government that has aided young people in obtaining a college education – including Rubio, but now Rubio doesn’t recognize that fact. It is government that provides incentives to private businesses to expand, to hire and to innovate thus helping the private sector to create jobs. All the help the government provide to small companies, big companies and the American citizens do not create uncertainty; again, the contrary is true.

I can continue on and on but I won’t because this is supposed to be a blog and not a book. Suffice to say that the thing that bothers Republicans the most is the cut to the Defense budget that the President is demanding and that Republicans want to increase instead… Remember, they are the laureate economists that took us from a surplus to a recession; the ones that care only about those that can buy their vote with money. Time and time again the Republicans have proven that they care not for the regular working class and minorities they only cater to the rich. They have shown the American people with enough gray matter to discern what’s transpiring what matters to their Party.  The previous Congress (112th) will go down in history as the worst and less productive Congress in recent history, that is if the 113th don’t surpass them. Give Republicans a vagina subject and they’ll jump all over it, ask them to help the needy and they'll ignore it. No wonder Rubio needed to drink so much water, it must be difficult to expel that much crap in such a short period of time!

Romney and the Cuban Connection

The overwhelming win of “Hispanic votes” in this past Florida elections are by no means a true reflection of the Hispanic vote nationwide, actually is far from it. The majority of Hispanic voters in South Florida, Cubans to be precise, are not affected by the immigration laws, as it is the case with the rest of the Hispanic population in Florida or anywhere else in the U.S.

Cubans have been the envy of many Hispanics that pursue a residency in United States; Cubans for decades have been privileged and have enjoyed a preferential treatment, thanks I should add to a Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, if Cubans touch American land they are welcomed to stay, period. So the radical deportation laws supported by Mitt Romney do not affect them and it looks like they couldn’t care less what happens to the others that are seeking the American dream just like they did. The Cubans that fled to this country for the last 30 to 50 years are in their vast majority Republicans. If you ask them why, it has to do with John F.Kennedy and Bay of Pigs, they felt betrayed by a Democratic president and they will never trust another Democrat. It doesn’t matter that you try to explain the reasons JFK had to back down on his offer to back the Cuban invasion in Bay of Pigs, it doesn’t matter that not two individuals are the same regardless of party affiliation, Cubans are like elephants (they chose the right party, at least the right mascot) they never forget. However, the younger generation of Cubans is seeing things differently and is abandoning in great numbers the views of their progenitors.

I am sure that the fact that Romney can claim that he has family in Mexico and that his father is Mexican born who came to this country as an immigrant is enough to make these older Cubans vote for Romney and not for Gingrich. I am also sure that most of these Cubans don’t know that Romney has never visited Mexico – his claimed roots – that he doesn’t personally know his Mexican family and that his Spanish is worse than any other American that learned Spanish in second grade and never practiced it since. They will not look for these facts and even if told, they will think of it as irrelevant. For Cubans in South Florida all it matters is that he has the support of the strongest life-long political Cuban figures in Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, who probably coached him about what to say, after all, they’re experts at milking the Cuban cause for their gain… It is easy for any politician to win the old school Cuban votes, it will suffice to say the same bullshit that has been said for the last 50 years: “Down with Castro’s policies”, “tighten the embargo”, “end the Communist regime in Cuba”; Cubans are either so naïve, so stupid or both that after hearing the same shit for half a century they still believe that anything will be done by an American politician – doesn’t matter which party they belong to! They have yet to realize that is not “good business” for the Cuban sharks, I mean politicians, comfortably sitting in Washington to end that which ails Cuba but that is great to maintain their lifestyle and fill up their pocketbooks, they would be out of business if it did and that works against their benefit, hence they will never do what is necessary to change the current situation in Cuba and they will continue doing what it has been repeatedly proven to be ineffective – the embargo – making of Castro a modern day martyr for the rest of the world.

Are you wondering what Cubans think about The Dream Act? Cubans are the first one to cry out loud – and I mean loud – against deporting these young men and women that were raised here and going to school. They will call the radio stations and proclaim their disapproval in no uncertain terms, Cubans are very passionate in the way they speak, to put it in a nice way, but that outrage disappears when faced with their innate, and somewhat justified, hate for Castro – so they’re willing to ‘sacrifice’ The Dream Act, after all it doesn’t apply to them, if Romney promises that he will remove Castro from the island. The Never Ending Story that Republicans brilliantly use time and time again when campaigning in Miami or South Florida.

Cubans represent only about 4% of the Hispanic population in the United States, according to the latest Census, so regardless of how impressive Romney’s Hispanic win in Florida may seem, it is definitively not a true representation of how the Hispanic vote will be on November 2, 2012.

(this article was first published, with minor differences, in http://technorati.com/ by Independent Thinker)